Chinese group works with South African police to fight crime

The Chinese community has been the soft target for criminals for years, with criminals targeting the Chinese in South Africa. Chinese people have been kidnapped and ransom has been demanded by some Chinese criminals.

Chinese in the country formed the Chinese Community Policing Forum in 2004 to protect their community. The forum is an organization formed by the Chinese to fight, prevent and detect crime. It works with the police to ensure that criminals are arrested.

The Chinese Community Policing Forum now protects about 300,000 Chinese in the country. It helps Chinese nationals to report cases at police stations, since some face language barriers.

The policing forum's CEO, Thomas Hu, says the organization has made progress since its inception. "Every year, we donate to retirement villages, the local community, schools and police," he says. "We have trained more than 1,000 police officers in Mandarin, and they have shown interest in learning the language. We have also sent over 100 policemen to China to learn the language. We have good working relations with the police from the Community Policing Forum to the top management."

The Chinese CPF has signed a memorandum of understanding with two local community policing forums and would like to sign with all provincial CPFs. There are 12 Chinese Policing Forum centers in the country's nine provinces. In the past, Chinese nationals struggled to open cases at police stations because of the language barrier. Now the CPF has a 24-hour hot line by which it receives complaints and assists victims in opening cases and with other issues.

The Chinese CPF handles about 350 cases per year. It also has a good working relationship with the police in China and with embassy officials.

Hu says: "We have managed to have some criminals arrested and sent to China to face the music. Some committed crimes there and fled to South Africa and thought they would never be arrested. We worked with the embassy to ensure these criminals were arrested. I can say that Chinese-to-Chinese crime has been almost eliminated."

The forum also explains laws to the Chinese community. It handles cases like kidnapping, assault, civil disputes and robberies. Statistics indicate there were about 200 robberies last year, and 12 Chinese nationals were killed during robberies.

Police in South Africa say that officers have a good relationship with the Chinese CPF. Captain Johan Jordaan, communication officer with the Cleveland police, says the Chinese CPF is useful to their work.

"I believe there is a good relationship between the South African police and the Chinese CPF," he says. "They have offered training to our members in Mandarin, and that has helped to overcome the communication barrier between the police and the Chinese community. The Chinese CPF has helped us to reduce crimes such as corruption and other serious crimes and has also helped us to solve some crimes."

The police say they engage with the Chinese CPF on a continuous basis to discuss issues of crime that affects the Chinese community. Jordaan says they always urge the Chinese community to report all crimes, no matter how minor.

Jordaan says, "Our dedicated sector managers are always in communication with the CPF and the Chinese community leaders to ensure a good relationship between the police and the community. The Chinese CPF has helped to translate and print awareness campaign pamphlets to make the Chinese community aware about crime and provide warning tips, advising how to report crime to the police."

The Chinese CPF has been recognized by the State Council, China's Cabinet, for its work in South Africa.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/29/2017 page28)